St. Paul daily globe., 1887-12-11
ONE WAY TO BECOME RICH.
NicOl1et Island Property Owners
Protested Against an Alleged
Steal.

Nicollet Island Property Owners
Protested Against an Alleged
Steal.
A large number of the residents of
NicOllet Island are somewhat indignant
at W. w. Eastman posing as public
benefactOr and denOunce his PROPOSE
tiOn, made to the council some weeks
ago, as an outrage upon the other
property owners on the island, and claim
that the whole thing is merely an at
tempt on the part of Mr.. Eastman to get
the city, through the council, to recOg-
niZe his title to land that for some
twenty years past has been considered
public property. The proposition pre-
Sented by Mr.. Eastman to the council
was in regard to donating to the city
certain land which runs around the
edge of NicOllet Island. Mr.. Eastman
claimed that the avenue extending
around the island and Skirting the river
was, according to the original plat, but
forty feet wide, and that the remaining
twenty-five or thirty feet, before the
water was reached, belonged to
him. He accordingly proposed
that the avenue should be widened two
and One-half feet. This strip of two
and One-half feet was to be donated to
the city, and in return the city was to
refund Mr.. Eastman certain back taxes
since 1882. exempt from taxation certain
other Of his property until it was i'm
proved and agree never to lower or
raise the grade more than two feet. On
the face of it this proposition was hon
est and fair enough, and without look
ing into the matter the council accepted
it. Later Oh other residents
of the island made representations
which caused the resembling of the
acceptance of the proposition. These
protesting residents claim that every
foot of land upon the island has been
sold upon the representation and under
standing that the avenue extended to
the river bank. They further say that
at least two of the official plats of this
property show that Park avenue eX-
tended to the water line, and that no
claim was ever made to this property
until the year 1882. when some one
called the attention of the assessor to
the fact that in the original plat there
was a reservation of the strip along the
water edge, and that this strip belonged
TO Mr.. Eastman. At this time Mr.. East
man allowed the property to be sold
for taxes, but had his wife bid it in, and
when questioned about the matter said
llldI Ho NdS IHoISIy SOIllIS d llllG W Tie
property in order to present it to the
park board. 1t is now declared that ac-
cOrding to the original plat, granting
the restriction made then, the avenue
would be fifty-seven feet wide instead
of forty, as Mr.. Eastman claims, and
more than that, it is even limited that
the fact that neither of the cOpyiStS who
made the official copies for the city at
tOrney and city engineer saw this limit
alton would seem to indicate that the
limiting clause was not there at the
time these copies were made, but
had been inserted by later hand.
1t would seem, if the claim of the
islanders be true, that Mr.. Eastman in
tended to work very sharp trade by
inducing the council to accepthis prOpO-
SitiOn. and pursuing his plan of building
land out into the river to gain possession
of strip of real estate some 1900 feet
long and worth about 100000. The
property owners OH the island declare
that they will fight the matter to the
bitter end, and so the case, after the
council gets through with it, will proba-
bly, come into the courts.